Practice Area Definitions Europe

Antitrust

Antitrust covers the body of laws that prohibits anti-competitive behaviour (monopoly) and unfair business practices. This includes practices that hurt business, consumers, or both, or that generally violate standards of ethical behavior. Antitrust litigation and M&A-related competition work are both included in the Chambers guides.

Arbitration (International)

This chapter features advice on the resolution of disputes by one or more neutral parties, either an arbitrator or an arbitration panel. Many contracts - including those imposed on customers by many financial and healthcare organisations - require mandatory arbitration in the event of a dispute. Examples of the institutions include AAA (American Arbitration Association), ICC (International Chamber of Commerce), ICSID (International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes) and LCIA (London Court of International Arbitration).

Asset Finance

Aviation

Aviation includes finance, regulatory and litigation matters. Finance concentrates on the advice to manufacturers, purchasers and investors (such as hedge and private equity funds) on the sale, leasing and acquisition of portfolios of aircraft. Also includes the 2001 UNIDROIT Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment, or Cape Town Convention, which relates to the electronic registration of aircraft interests.

The Aviation Litigation table covers traditional accident defense litigation, including advising aviation insurers on coverage and other issues, as well as product liability claims and general commercial disputes affecting the aviation industry. The Aviation Regulatory table spans representation before the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Surface Transportation Board (STB) and other federal administrative agencies. Key issues include the reauthorisation of air traffic control systems and their funding. Also covers issues of congestion, and the Open Skies talks between the USA and the European Union.

Banking & Finance

A broad-based definition of banking transactions, which include both borrower and lender clients. The following topics are included: Acquisition finance: transactions involving arranging finance for acquisitions acting for either the lender or the borrowe; Islamic Finance: Sharia-compliant work such as acquisitions, forming funds to invest in real estate and commercial properties, issuing of Sukuks; General bank lending: syndicated lending, structured finance, leveraged finance; Project finance: financing of infrastructure and industrial projects.

Often arranged on a non-recourse loan basis. See also equipment finance and leasing; Refinancing: The refinancing and restructuring of existing loans and debtor in possession financing is also included.

Bankruptcy

The focus is on corporate bankruptcy and restructuring and the legal processes related to distressed businesses, which can either be reorganised or go into liquidation. Also, especially in the current economic environment, the chapter includes lawyers, who advise on acquisition opportunities that arise out of distressed businesses. Lawyers in this chapter assist clients such as corporate debtors, investors and asset purchasers; secured and unsecured creditors and creditors' committees, bondholders, insurers; directors of distressed companies and any other interested parties in corporate restructurings, bankruptcy proceedings.

In addition to transactional work, bankruptcy also covers any related litigation, such as disputes between such parties in connection with distressed companies and Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 processes.

Construction

Construction covers contractual advisor work within the construction industry for both the suppliers (eg developers, contractors, engineers and architects), and those clients employing these types of companies eg corporates or state authorities on their building plans. Our construction sections cover both litigious and non-litigious matters.

Corporate / M&A

This broad category covers both public company and private equity (including venture capital) matters. The chapter includes company acquisitions, dispositions and related financing arrangements, capitalisations, entity selection and formation, operating and partnership agreements, securities and governance matters. Also covers those transactions designed to help restructuring within companies and their subsidiaries by change of ownership.

Priority is placed on primary representatives, those acting for buyers and sellers, whilst those acting for financial advisors, underwriters and the banks financing such transactions are also considered.

Employee Share Schemes

The focus is on employee benefits, including share incentive plans (SIPs) and employee management incentives (EMIs) and tax efficient structuring of payment schemes. It also includes advice on disputes following the implementation of share schemes.

Employment

Covers both contentious and non-contentious employment matters relating to day-to-day business issues as well as mergers and takeovers. Includes employment litigation related to sex, race, age discrimination. In the USA, this also includes class action suits, and the avoidance of class action certification. Includes workforce redundancies and employment issues related to the merger of two companies. Lawyers also advise on the writing of policy handbooks, HR training and corporate governance for major corporates.

Energy

Although Chambers is aware of the overlap with Projects and project financing, the energy chapters focus on corporate / commercial, regulatory and capital markets issues arising from the energy sector. These include the regulatory components of M&A and other transactional work, pure regulatory work related to the application for licenses and compliance and enforcement with regulatory bodies. In the US, these include FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) and CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission). Chambers guides focuses on key industry sectors including Electricity; Oil & Gas; Renewables and Nuclear matters.

Oil and Gas covers all upstream and downstream work including exploration, infrastructure and pipeline developments and service contracts, royalties, licensing and operation agreements. It also includes corporate issues such as M&A, capital raisings, taxation and regulatory compliance.

Renewables focuses on the financing, development and regulatory issues surrounding wind and wave power generation, solar, biomass and geothermal energy generation. It also includes advice on compliance with clean energy regulations.

Nuclear issues include licensing and operation, commercial transactions, reactor oversight, enforcement and compliance, whistleblower statutes and non-retaliation policy, as well as nuclear waste and fuel procurement.

Natural Resources sections focus on mining and minerals exploration, development and production agreements, including royalty issues, project finance, taxation and other financing arrangements. Engineering, processing and refining contracts, sales structures and environmental issues are also covered.

Environment

The environment chapter features both litigation and advisory / transactional support to clients. This includes general corporate issues, (eg due diligence on mergers), the development of brownfield sites, and pollution issues.

'Traditional' environment work includes regulatory compliance, litigation and enforcement actions related to air, water, wetlands, waste and endangered species. We also feature advice to corporate and financial clients on the environmental aspects of M&A, financings, securities offerings and other transactions, which involve due diligence and environmental insurance issues. Climate Change is a key market trend and in some markets has its own chapter.

Financial Services Regulation

This chapter covers both non-contentious and contentious matters arising out of the Financial Services industry and advice on all aspects of internal organisation and governance, transactions and operations. Non-contentious matters include assistance to banks/financial institutions clients in complying with the full range of financial services laws and regulations in their daily operations (such as the Anti-Money Laundering Act, International Banking Act, the Electronic Funds Transfer Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Truth in Lending Act, the USA PATRIOT Act and many other statutes affecting the financial services day-to-day business).

This section also encompasses financial institutions business transactions, especially the advice on regulatory issues in mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures of financial services companies and the implementation of holdings in foreign countries.

This section also covers the lobbying work done by the firm for the development of new laws and regulations before Congress or other regulatory agencies. In contentious matters, we include advice related to the defence of financial institutions in criminal and civil examinations, inspections, investigations, and formal proceedings by the SEC and other federal and state financial regulators and self-regulatory organisations.

Franchising

This section includes those acting for Franchisees and Franchisors and covers both transactional and contentious work. On the non-contentious side, this includes setting up a franchise arrangement, expanding a system and closing down arrangements. Disputes arising from the sector such as disputed closing down of a system or contractual obligations.

Immigration

Law firms featured in this section provide advice on all aspects of inbound and outbound immigration, such as work permits and visas, workforce mobility, HSMP and other legislative and regulatory changes. Chambers UK also features Personal Immigration, which includes student, asylum / refugee and publicly funded immigration issues.

Insolvency / Corporate Recovery

The focus is on corporate insolvency and restructuring and the legal processes related to distressed businesses, which can either be reorganised or go into liquidation. Also, especially in the current economic environment, the chapter includes lawyers, who advise on acquisition opportunities that arise out of distressed businesses.

Lawyers in this chapter assist clients such as corporate debtors, investors and asset purchasers; secured and unsecured creditors and creditors` committees, bondholders, insurers; directors of distressed companies and any other interested parties in corporate restructurings, bankruptcy proceedings. In addition to transactional work, bankruptcy also covers any related litigation, such as disputes between such parties in connection with distressed companies and, in the USA, Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 processes.

Insurance

Insurance includes both contentious and non-contentious insurance and reinsurance matters. On the contentious side, we feature coverage claims litigation, broker`s negligence and both `facultative` and `treaty` reinsurance disputes. There is also an element of professional negligence issues arising from insurance disputes. On the non-contentious side, we include all forms of M&A, capital raisings, demutualisations and other regulatory issues.

International Trade

This section covers classic trade cases such as anti-dumping, countervailing duties, export control and other customs / tariff classifications and regulatory work. Lawyers also advise on matters relating to NAFTA, WTO and GATT trade provisions and the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), an areas that overlaps to some extent with the white-collar crime field.

Filings before the Committee on Foreign Investments into the United States (CFIUS) is an areas on which some law firms are focused, and Chambers USA tracks these trends. Chambers USA also features lawyers, who are experts in s337 investigations before the ITC.

Islamic Finance

IT & IT Outsourcing

The IT industry crosses a range of business sectors, whether it involves global communications networks of large multinationals, or internal data storage systems of small owner-managed businesses.

The Chambers IT chapters are always evolving to track current trends, but major outsourcing agreements consistently feature. The chapter also includes `convergence`; the coming together of content (such as voice or data), transmission of that content (such as broadcast, satellite or Internet) and terminals receiving that content (such as TV, PC or mobile handset).

Leisure & Hospitality

This is an industry section covering all strands of legal services carried out for clients involved in the leisure industry, ranging from ranging from hotels and amusement parks to casinos. The key strands of legal advice related to real estate, employment and OSHA, corporate/commercial matters and financing.

Life Sciences

Life sciences focuses on the commercialisation of life sciences products (pharmaceuticals, medical devices and biotechnology programs etc). IP issues dominate as large pharmaceuticals seek to obtain innovative, impending blockbuster drugs from biotechs and other pharmaceutical companies. Also includes the licensing and acquisition of new products from other sources (often smaller biotechs to larger suppliers).

This chapter includes advice on FDA issues and the increased focus on drug and device safety, which also appears in Healthcare. Litigation centring on claims of product liability can be seen in the National Products Liability chapter of Chambers USA.

Litigation

The Chambers USA litigation chapters focus on commercial proceedings before state and federal court, circuit courts and US Supreme Court. The work covers the full course of a dispute such as pre-trial negotiations, documentation and preparation for trial, summary judgement motions, trial, appeals and enforcement proceedings.

Chambers USA focuses on two main types of litigation: commercial disputes before civil courts and white-collar crime, including government investigations. Alternative dispute resolution, involving non-court mediation is also featured. Many commercial contracts contain arbitration clauses, which are handled by commercial litigators. However, Chambers USA has also identified those firms, which field arbitration specialists. Please refer to the National: International Arbitration table for further information. In the USA, the Bar is sufficiently specialised for Chambers USA to identify litigators by the sector in which they practice. Areas such as Insurance, Construction, Environment IP and Media all contain litigators who are experts in their field.

Media & Broadcasting

The media market has many different facets. Chambers guides have attempted to highlight lawyers who have an understanding of the issues related to key sectors such as Advertising, Firm & Television, Music, Publishing and Theatre. Within these sectors, we spotlight those lawyers, who concentrate on either contentious or non-contentious matters.

Natural Resources

The Natural Resources sections focus on mining and minerals exploration, development and production agreements, including royalty issues, project finance, taxation and other financing arrangements. Engineering, processing and refining contracts, sales structures and environmental issues are also covered.

Privacy & Data Security

The US Privacy and Data Security section covers compliance with a vast array of US federal and state privacy and information management laws. At the federal level, such laws are predominantly sector-specific and include the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

At the state level, a particularly notable area is advice on data security breaches and on the ramifications and requirements of various state data breach notification laws. Such data security breaches can also attract the attention of various state Attorneys General and federal bodies such as the FTC, which can lead to firms being required to represent clients in investigations, enforcement actions or litigation. Work of an international nature can include advising clients with multinational operations on data security issues relating to cross-border transfers of data, such as in large-scale outsourcing transactions involving a number of countries, and on global or multi-jurisdictional privacy compliance programmes.

Products Liability

This chapter encompasses legal claims that allow an injured party to recover financial compensation from the manufacturer or seller of a product. This can include faulty brakes, contaminated food and medicine lacking appropriate label warnings. Law firms advise manufacturers, distributors, suppliers retailers and others who make the product available to the public. It also covers toxic tort, relating to the exposure to chemicals, pharmaceutical drugs or occupational hazards.

Most pharmaceutical claims are mass tort cases, because drugs are consumed by thousands of people. Occupational toxic tort cases occur where industrial and other works have been exposed to toxic chemicals. Most of the law in this area has traditionally arisen from asbestos exposure.

Projects

The projects chapters focus on the development; financing (limited and non-recourse); refinancing and acquisition / divestitures of large projects that arise from the capital intensive infrastructure and energy markets. Clients in this sector include sponsors, lenders, project originators and multilateral agencies and development banks. In the energy sector, we include advice on the development of refineries, pipelines, LNG and petrochemical terminals, power plants and wind power, waste-to-energy and hydro-wave technology.

The chapter also features infrastructure matters such as toll road and bridge financing; rail and light rail systems; water desalination plants as well as state sponsored programmes (PPP / PFI) such as hospitals, schools, housing and prisons. The chapter also features related concerns such environment and climate change and political risk.

Real Estate

Corporate matters related to real estate include M&A of large real estate holding companies, complex fund and REIT transactions, private equity and public securities. These real estate lawyers are distinct from pure corporate lawyers in that they typically come from a real estate background, have an understanding of the underlying asset and do aspects of `dirt law` real estate for their clients.

In the USA, zoning and land use specialists often form an identifiable category. They perform and important role in major developments, advising on zoning regulations and municipal restrictions used by some cities to control development within their borders. Easement and eminent domain (or condemnation) is also covered.

Real estate finance matters are also included. Lawyers do not need to act exclusively for lenders but should have a healthy lender client base which gives them the volume of work in this field. Some of these lawyers will also handle aspects of complex debt capital markets - such as securitisation - but the decision to include them in a real estate table will be based on their understanding of the underlying asset.

The structuring and transactional advice provided to REITs(real estate investment trusts) impacts on our real estate tables. For attorneys who practice exclusively in the field of REITs, please also considered the Chambers USA National REITs table or the Chambers Global `Global REITs` table. However, Chambers real estate chapters will always cover this part of the market.

Retail

Retail is an industry table covering law firms who have developed a track record in serving the needs of large, national retailers. Naturally, real estate, planning and land use matters will feature prominently, but the firm must also advise on franchise, IP, trademark and e-commerce matters. Furthermore, it should ideally demonstrate aptitude in employment matters and be able to respond to the majority of tax, advertising and regulatory and consumer protection issues, as well as disputes both nationally and internationally.

Shipping

Shipping & maritime litigation involves breach of charter-party disputes, cargo and bills of lading claims, the arrest of vessels and cargoes, marine insurance claims, collision, salvage and environmental liabilities. On the non-contentious side, law firms advise on contractual arrangements for construction, financing and registration of vessels, customs and licensing, and documentation relating to charter-parties and bills of lading.

Technology & Communications

Technology focuses on contractual agreements in the technology field, often outsourcing contracts between large corporates and suppliers of IT services. Chambers guides also include transactional matters such as M&A and financing in this chapter. Law firms often work with investors or start-up enterprises on a range of business issues including employment law, strategic alliances and joint ventures, stock exchange listings, mergers, acquisitions and corporate governance issues.

Telecommunications

The telecom section concentrates on a range of legal issues arising from the heavily regulated areas of telecommunications and broadcasting. Work includes transactional and litigation advice to telecoms companies, wireless operators, TV and / or radio broadcasters and the regulatory issues that such companies face. These issues might be government sponsored-inquires, investigations or compliance proceedings.

Other matters include interconnection and resales laws, multimedia agreements and licensing activity.

Transportation

Transportation is a broad industry category, which covers a number of discrete specialisms: Aviation includes both finance, regulatory and litigation matters. Finance concentrates on the advice to manufacturers, purchasers and investors (such as hedge and private equity funds) on the sale, leasing and acquisition of portfolios of aircraft. Also includes the 2001 UNIDROIT Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment, or Cape Town Convention, which relates to the electronic registration of aircraft interests.

The Aviation Litigation table covers traditional accident defense litigation, including advising aviation insurers on coverage and other issues, as well as product liability claims and general commercial disputes affecting the aviation industry. The Aviation Regulatory table spans representation before the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Surface Transportation Board (STB) and other federal administrative agencies. Key issues include the reauthorisation of air traffic control systems and their funding. Also covers issues of congestion, and the Open Skies talks between the USA and the European Union.

For Road Infrastructure matters, please see the Projects chapter, which includes the financing and development of toll roads, rail projects seaports and airports, which can ultilise the public-private partnership model.

Shipping finance, litigation (such as cargo claims and contractual disputes) and regulatory matters are treated in separate tables. Shipping finance includes advice to the traditional bank market as well as hedge and private equity funds looking for new investment opportunities.

White-collar Crime

This practice area covers non-violent wrongdoings such as corruption and financial crimes. Examples include bribery, major fraud and insider trading. Litigation, compliance and government investigations are relevant to this practice area.

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Information contained on the Chambers and Partners websites (including ChambersConnect) is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal or other professional advice. Information shared through these websites does not constitute or create a 'lawyer-client' relationship.